What's this all about?
Ford has come up with two new lighting inventions that build on the already clever illumination tech available now in the automotive world. The first item is called the Camera-Based Advanced Front Lighting System (CBAFLS), which is near production-ready, while the second is Spot Lighting - but that's at an earlier development phase.
Tell me about CBAFLS.
It builds on the existing Adaptive Front Lighting System (steering headlights, in a nutshell) to widen the front lamps' beam at junctions and roundabouts to show up obstacles that are not in the direction of travel. Like a late-night cyclist weaving across a dimly illuminated exit, say. If you've got the satnav on, it will use GPS data to better shine a light round bends and into dips en route, and if there's no GPS signal, a forward-facing camera in the rear-view mirror checks out the road's markings and curvature before working its magic. CBAFLS even remembers the data in this situation so that it is ready for the road the next time you travel along it.
Clever. How about Spot Lighting?
Still in the pre-development phase with the same engineers in Aachen, Germany, which worked on CBAFLS, Spot Lighting uses an infra-red camera to spotlight two hazards for the driver, deploying a 'spot' and a 'stripe' on the road's surface via two special LED lamps next to the foglights. The highlighted objects are displayed on the screen inside the car, marked in a red or yellow frame, according to the proximity of the object and the level of danger presented. It can track up to eight people and bigger animals (such as deer and - according to Ford - 'larger dogs') in front of the car, or just off the road ahead, at a range of up to 120 metres.
Any of the bods involved got anything to say about this?
Yes. Michael Koherr, research engineer for Lighting Systems, Ford of Europe, said: "Camera-Based Advanced Front Lighting can help make it easier for the driver to travel at night in unfamiliar surroundings, and to more easily see unexpected hazards. At roundabouts, for example, our system helps the driver to clearly see the exits - and check if cyclists and pedestrians are crossing the road. Spot Lighting makes potential hazards in the road ahead more easily visible to the driver - whether that is a pedestrian, a cyclist or even a large animal."
Matt Robinson - 22 Jul 2015